He may, however, be looking at a penalty for cutting a chicane. In fact, the way things have been going this weekend, he may be looking at being put against the pit wall and shot.

Maldonado’s victory follows a weekend during which the grid was shaken up by a series of controversial stewards’ decisions that saw Karun Chandhok, Sebastien Buemi, Bruno Senna and Andreas Zuber all penalised.

Giorgio Pantano, currently trying to hang on to his championship lead until the season’s end, was disqualified from the race weekend altogether after an overtaking manoeuvre went wrong and caused an accident.

Britain’s Mike Conway, who drives for Trident, was set to start on pole after coming eighth in the feature race – but lost that after being promoted to seventh following the exclusion of Zuber. He eventually retired on lap four.

He said: “My race started in a bad way when a mistake at take-off cost me several positions. Then, at lap 6, I ended up spinning while exiting the last chicane and entering the final straight, and everything ended there. It’s a pity, ’cause we had a clear possibility to score an important result.”

Zuber said before the race: “I think the stewards hate my name. They throw me out at every opportunity. They have even put me 26th on the grid and there is only 25 cars!”

His Piquet Sports team said it was “very disappointed” at the decision, which concerned a repair to the car’s nosecone, and which it said did not fit with its understanding of the regulations.

In today’s race, D’Ambrosio initially hung onto his lead despite a strong challenge from Andy Soucek who was later forced to retire following a crash at Stavelot.